The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir

After Ji Man took a bath, she went to sleep. However, she hadn’t been sleeping for long before Wen Wan’s personal servant girl, Tanxiang, actually came here to pass on a message, “Mistress Sang, Madam said that you’re the most familiar with Miss Errong’s likes and dislikes. Please come with me to the southern courtyard.”

Wen Wan was currently expending a great deal of effort and trouble to complete the task that old madam had given her. Ji Man agitatedly rolled over in bed. People that didn’t get enough sleep were very irritable. She really didn’t want to go!

But, she didn’t have a choice. The other person was the main wife. As a concubine, she could only accept Wen Wan’s order with a happy face. After changing her clothes, she headed towards the southern courtyard.

Ning Errong’s likes and dislikes? Ji Man didn’t even have to think about it. Standing in the southern courtyard, she said, “Change it to Louhan silk, spread out a Persian carpet, and just decorate this place with luxurious items.”

(T/N: Louhan is ancient kingdom based around an important oasis city along the Silk Road.)

Put into a difficult position by Nie Sangyu’s words, Sterward Qian looked at the budget and hesitated again and again before he finally said, “I’ll go look for Madam and report this to her first.”

Ji Man originally stood at the side of the southern courtyard to wait, but she really couldn’t keep her eyelids open. So, she called out to Muxu, “Let’s go sit at the swing below that grape trellis over there.”

Looking that the dark circles under her master’s eyes, Muxu knew that her master hadn’t slept well last night. But, she kept quiet and only ambiguously smiled her as she helped walk over there.

“Don’t let the swing move. Just let me sit here and take a nap. If there’s nothing important, don’t wake me up. Try to deal with the problem by yourself first.” After Ji Man said this, she sat down on the swing, held onto the swing’s ropes, closed her eyes, and leaned against one side as she fell asleep.

Muxu sighed. Her master’s life wasn’t easy either, so she tried to allow her to sleep some more. When Aunty Zhao came by with some snacks and yelled out, “Master Sang”, while she was still far away, Muxu hurriedly ran over to her in small steps and pulled her farther away to speak.

Aunty Zhao saw that the other servants had been busy inside and outside of the residence and smiled as she asked, “Is Marquis Jingwen coming?”

—

“He’s coming here in two days.” Ning Yuxuan said, “Mingjie has been doing his work well. The emperor probably has the intention of returning him to the capital and promoting him to an official’s position. Mingjie unfortunately isn’t interested in officialdom. Otherwise, he would be a very good chess piece.”

The crown prince looked around before nodding and saying, “If he has the desire, I can help him. After all, he’s your cousin.”

Marquis Moyu nodded. Ning Mingjie would have a bright future even without his help. However, his other cousin, Ning Errong, had the same lack of moral integrity as Nie Sangyu and was very difficult to deal with. He still had to give his attention to figuring out her future. Just thinking about it made him feel tired.

Nearby him, the crown prince suddenly stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?” Ning Yuxuan turned around to look at him. Seeing the surprise and strange glimmer in the crown prince’s eyes, he curiously followed the direction of his gaze.

There was a beauty sleeping in the swing underneath the grape trellis. The bottom of her light purple dress was slightly swaying along with the swing. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, but her lips were so beautiful that it made a person want to impulsively go over there to kiss her. Her hands were loosely wrapped around the ropes as she innocently slept.

Marquis Moyu’s expression sunk. Was Nie Sangyu an idiot? Why was she sleeping outside?

The crown prince had already started walking over as he asked, “Who is she?”

Ning Yuxuan furrowed his brow, walked a few steps forward, and pretended that he was only accidentally blocking the crown’s prince’s view, “She’s Nie Sangyu.”

Surprised, the mistiness in the crown prince’s eyes scattered. He looked at the person on the swing, then he looked at Ning Yuxuan, “Nie Sangyu?”

Marquis Moyu seriously nodded.

To avoid arousing any suspicion, Zhao Zhe had only met Nie Sangyu a few times during palace banquets. But, during those times, she had been dressed to the nines and wearing heavy makeup. No matter how beautiful her face was, it would have been tarnished by the conspicuous makeup. And so, he hadn’t paid any attention to her.

He hadn’t expected that when she wasn’t wearing makeup, she would look even better. She resembled an attractive piece of white jade that enticed people to come closer and play with her.

The crown prince lightly coughed. The expression on his face returned to normal and he said, “If her personality wasn’t unbearable, she’s also a beauty.”

Ning Yuxuan was slightly displeased, but he didn’t mention it. He only said, “She hadn’t slept well last night, let’s not wake her up. Let’s go the garden.”

The crown prince nodded and subconsciously looked back at Nie Sangyu one more time before he followed Ning Yuxuan.

Ji Man didn’t open her eyes until the sound of their footsteps had disappeared. Her hands were sweaty. She hadn’t read the ending in the original novel, but she knew that the crown prince was a fickle and ruthless person. It wasn’t a good thing to attract his attention. She hadn’t looked at the huangli before leaving her room today and hadn’t expected the misfortunate of encountering them.

(T/N: Huangli is similar to horoscopes. In ancient china, there were certain government officials that were in charge of writing this calendar and it was originally used for recording the movements of the sun and the moon, major issues of the nation and government, and the emperors’ words and deeds. The divination part was added later on. In modern times, it’s a calendar that mostly used for telling people which days are lucky and unlucky based on their Zodiac sign. There are various people creating these calendars, so it’s not as authoritative and centralized as it was during ancient China.)

When Muxu came back with the snacks, she saw her that her master’s face was ashen white.

“Master?” Muxu looked at her in confusion.

“It’s nothing.” Ji Man shook her head and decided that she had been mistaken about the crown prince’s burning gaze. Since the crown prince knew that she was Nie Sangyu, he should also know what she represented. He wouldn’t do anything to her. She was just overthinking things.

—

In the evening, Ning Yuxuan came to Feiwan Courtyard after he finished dinner. His expression wasn’t relaxed. As soon as he came inside, he stared at her for a long time.

“Is there something on this servant’s face?” Ji Man quietly asked.

“No.” Ning Yuxuan turned his head away. His mood didn’t look good. Right after he lied down on the bed, he said, “I don’t want to listen to stories tonight.”

Ji Man was startled. If he didn’t want to listen to stories, what did he want to do?

“How about telling me interesting stories from your childhood?” Ning Yuxuan suddenly said.

Ji Man let out a sigh in relief. As long as he just wanted her to talk, everything was fine. She didn’t believe that Marquis Moyu could continue to favor her again tomorrow night. If he favored her for that many days in a row, Wen Wan definitely wouldn’t be able to sit still and do nothing.

“This servant doesn’t really have any interesting stories from childhood, other than dressing as a boy to go outside and visiting the bustling streets with my older brother or climbing Marquis Pingnan’s residence’s walls to see my crush.”

She had slowly seen these memories in her dream. That young girl had really put forth all of her energy to climb over another household’s walls.

Ning Yuxuan naturally still had an impression of Nie Sangyu climbing over walls. It was at that point in time when he started to dislike her. As he carefully looked at Nie Sangyu’s face, his heart was filled with a sense of uncertainty.

Translator Ramblings: I’ve been wondering why Ji Man she doesn’t give enough consideration to Nie Sangyu’s maltreatment of the other concubines during past years. No matter how good she’s been during the past three months, it doesn’t erase Nie Sangyu’s past actions. But, if Nie Sangyu is only sharing her memories involving Ning Yuxuan, then it make sense that she still doesn’t know what Nie Sangyu had done in the past.

Also, I think it’s reasonable that he’s surprised about Nie Sangyu’s sudden change. Yes, he’s treated her very indifferently and sometimes overly harsh. Any other person would have given up on him a long time ago. But, he’s been consistently treating her this way since he and Nie Sangyu were children and this has never stopped Nie Sangyu from continuing to obsess over him. I included a tiny spoiler in the comments below related to this.